1. Technical Field
This application is a divisional application claiming priority to Ser. No. 10/790,913, filed Mar. 2, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,266,806 issued Sep. 4, 2007.
2. Related Art
A portal is a web site that serves as a starting point to access information and applications on the internet or from an intranet. FIG. 1 provides a portlet example, in accordance with the related art. A portal has an associated portal server such as, inter alia, a WebSphere® portal server from the International Business Machines Corporation (hereinafter, a “WSP server”).
Portlets are reusable components of a portal that provide access to web-based content, applications, and other resources. Web pages, applications, and syndicated content feeds can be accessed through portlets. From a user's perspective, a portlet is a window in the portal that provides a specific service or information. From an application development perspective, portlet code comprises pluggable modules that are designed to run inside a portlet container of a portal service. A Model-View-Controller (MVC) portlet is a portlet whose design separates out controller logic, business logic, and view logic from each other.
The traditional mode of Model-View-Controller (MVC) portlet development has significant disadvantages. When developing business logic, a portlet developer needs to also write a substantial amount of “overhead code” that addresses the intent of a user's request before getting to business logic. Monolithic portlet action event handling and controller code blocks need to be written to accept the user's action (e.g., the user's clicking on a link), perform numerous string comparisons to map the action to a behavior, and then navigate to the controller where the next page will be configured for display based on the results of the action. The controller likewise performs numerous string comparisons to determine the page to display. String comparisons further complicate the portlet and introduce risks of errors. With traditional MVC development, code development by the portlet developer is complex and subject to program bugs.
Thus, there is a need for portlet development technology which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the MVC portlet development